The long-running dispute between the China and Japan over a group of islands called the Senkakus in Japanese (and the Diaoyu in Chinese) boiled over in 2012 in china.  Protestors targeted Japanese-made cars and Japanese-owned retail stores, and uncontrolled crowds stormed the Japanese embassy in Beijing.  This year, as tensions again rise, Chinese diplomats characterize Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in derogatory terms as a threat to regional stability.  But Japan has other disputes along the same lines, notably with South Korea over the Takeshima Islands, known as Dokdo in Korean.  Relations between Seoul and Tokyo continue to deteriorate over the naming of the sea that lies between Korea and Japan.  South Korea calls it the “East Sea” and Japan calls it “Sea of Japan”.  Korea fights back in unlikely places – such as the Virginia state legislature.  At the behest of intense lobbyists for Korea, the legislature passed a bill mandating that both names be included in school textbooks used in the state, the State Board of Education being ordered to ensure that result in any textbook approve by the Board after July 1, 2014.  Not to be outdone, Chile and Peru sought a resolution of the disputed boundary extending into the Pacific Ocean.  Peru turned to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.  Peru was defeated in the War of the Pacific in 1879-83 and Chile drew the boundary between the two countries.  The ICJ ruling redrew the boundary slightly, awarding Peru more territory but not the richest fishing grounds Peru sought.  Neither side was completely satisfied but both seemed mollified.  They may be willing to put the boundary to rest and focus on cooperation and trade ties.  more to come:  Bolivia filed a demand with the ICJ against Chile concerning access to the sea, and Colombia is now refusing to implement the ICJ ruling last year that granted to Nicaragua a more favorable offshore boundary.

Names and boundaries in distant lands, diplomatic offensives at home and abroad – and the Virginia State legislature in the middle of one of the disputes.  There’s plenty in a name.